Is Your Fate in the Hands of a Luke Skywalker or a HAL 9000?
January 20, 2006
Remember that climactic scene in Star Wars? Luke Skywalker is about to
fire proton torpedoes that will destroy the Death Star. He hears a
voice in his head: Use the Force. So Luke turns off the targeting
computer and lets fly the moment he feels the force tell him so.
I'm not sure about you, but if my fate -- and the fate of millions --
depended on somebody who actually ignored his diagnostics tool and
made a do-or-die decision based on a New Age philosophy and voices in
his head, I'd be just a little worried. Oh my gosh, he even closed his
eyes, didn't he?
As anybody who's participated in any decision-making process will
attest, human beings are complex creatures who make decisions based on
a dizzying myriad of factors. Sometimes, we aren't even fully aware of
our own neuroses or proclivities when we make our decisions or
actively coalesce opinions into a favorable consensus.
So is it with strategic planning, much as we'd like to think every
participant is working toward the betterment of the whole. Dan Lovallo
and Olivier Sibony of McKinsey have written a fascinating article
Distortions and Deceptions in Strategic Decisions.
They write: "Strategic decisions are never simple to make, and they
sometimes go wrong because of human shortcomings. Behavioral economics
teaches us that a host of universal human biases, such as overoptimism
about the likelihood of success, can affect strategic decisions."
Read the article to see what the authors identify as problems that
lead to decisions based on shaky, dangerous and flawed foundations.
Finally, they make recommendations on how to avoid the twin problems
of distortions and deceptions. It's a worthwhile read.
In conjunction, our recent Balanced Scorecard and strategic planning
webcast was tremendously successful. We had a terrific turnout and
discussion. Over 400 people attended this on-line workshop. You can
view this recorded webcast at your convenience by clicking on this
link: Managing Strategy with the Balanced Scorecard: How to Convert
Strategic Planning into Action.
Finally, to learn more on the topic, Balanced Scorecard developers
Robert Kaplan and David Norton have developed a toolkit for your use.
It's called the Translate Strategy Toolkit. Let me know what you think
of it.
Sometimes, it seems that the human factor limits our ability to
achieve organizational success and harmony. Cheer up. It could be
worse. We could have our fates in the evil hands of HAL 9000. If he
had hands.
Sam Sheikh
Editor
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Ilmu merupakan harta abstrak titipan Allah Subhanahu wata'ala kepada seluruh
manusia yang akan bertambah bila terus diamalkan, salah satu pengamalannya
adalah dengan membagi-bagikan ilmu itu kepada yang membutuhkan.
Janganlah sombong dengan ilmu yang sedikit, karena jika Allah Subhanahu
wata'ala berkehendak ilmu itu akan sirna dalam sekejap, beritahulah orang yang
tidak tahu, tunjukilah orang yang minta petunjuk, amalkanlah ilmu itu sebatas
yang engkau mampu.
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